Spring? Really?

(CSA Newsletter: Week 7)

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Um … hi there, Weather. I just wanted to check that you got the memo. The one about how March 20 was the vernal equinox — otherwise known as the first day of spring? If you missed the date of the calendar, you’ve probably at least noticed that daffodils are blooming everywhere. That yellow color — it’s pretty recognizable this time of year.

So, yeah: it’s officially spring. But somehow I think something’s missing in the delivery. Today (Monday) it never warmed above 50°, and most of the day it lingered just above 40° with fierce cold wind and rain. Just so you know: we both put on all our winter layers (long underwear, down vests, full raingear), and we still got cold. Really, really cold. Our hands froze numb through layers of gloves as we washed the vegetables. Surely you heard a few of the cranky swears that slipped out of us?

What’s more, if you haven’t noticed, our greenhouse is full of starts, waiting to be planted into the field. As a reminder, two years ago we first planted in early March. We’re approaching late March and the ground is still too cold and wet for us to even begin ground prep. I know that farmers in southern Oregon are planting, but I also hear that it hasn’t rained there nearly as much as here. You know, our neighbor reported three inches of rain in two days last week. That’s a lot of rain, in any season!

You may also have seen that we completed planting our small fruit orchard last Friday. There are buds popping already on some of the trees, most notably on the Methley Plums. We sure do love plums and hope to harvest a few this year for ourselves, even though the trees won’t be in full production for three years. But we’ll need mild weather during the bloom.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful or demanding. I know you have a lot of things to manage: droughts, rainstorms, freezes, and such elsewhere. And, overall, we’re grateful for the temperate conditions you grace upon our region, even though this year has been way more extreme than most. But I thought that maybe you could use a gentle friendly reminder that farmers here in northwestern Oregon have crops to plant and work to do. I’m not asking for much: maybe a nice warm stretch of dry weather so we could plant. Or, maybe just less frigid weather on harvest days.

Don’t stretch yourself too much. Average is fine.

If you were human and could eat vegetables, I would also remind you that — despite the cold weather — greens things are growing and the veggies continue to be delicious. I’d also remind you to enjoy this week’s vegetables. Respectfully,

Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla

P.S. A quick note about cabbages & rot:

We’ve heard from a few CSA members now that they’ve encountered rot inside some of the recent cabbages. First of all, we apologize if you were unable to eat your cabbage! Obviously, we thought we were harvesting perfectly good cabbages.

Secondly, we want you to know that it is safe to eat the ‘good’ part of a partially rotted cabbage. We’ve heard reports of people composting an entire cabbage because they found a little bit of rot inside. Fortunately, the situation is not like jam or other stored liquids, where mold in one part means the whole thing is a bust. Definitely cut a liberal distance around any bad looking part of any vegetable, but then wash and enjoy the rest.

Hopefully, this information will be a moot point anyway. We try our best to deliver only the best, cleanest, freshest delicious veggies each week. But sometimes winter vegetables surprise us. The good news is that we’re done with the cabbages that were posing a problem and will only be harvesting obviously very high quality heads over the next few weeks. As always, thank you for your understanding of and enthusiasm for seasonal local eating!